I was enthralled by the image of what looked like a staircase of ice
over at Tokyomango.
No, it's not ice (that would be deadly slippery) - instead, the steps
are made from optical glass.

Designed by Hiroshi Sugimoto, the glass staircase decorates the Go-Oh
Shrine at Naoshima, Kagawa prefecture, Japan. In the project, titled Approprite
Proportion (2002), the staircase connects the Shinto shrine with
an underground room:

The shrine comprises three main parts: the Worship Hall, the Main
Sanctuary, and the Rock Chamber. The massive rock slab completely cuts
off the Worship Hall and the Main Sanctuary from the Rock Chamber; only
the “stairway of light” joins the celestial and earthbound
realms.

From the underground chamber, a concrete-walled passage leads to the
mountainside. Visitors to the shrine first worship at the divine iwakura
(stone seat) and shrine hall, then descend to the “ancient”
underground chamber via the concrete passage, lastly taking in a view
of the sea through the portal to the present on the way out.